Even before it is a place and a country, America is an idea and an ideal. And this is what is meant by "Open Source America." America lives unbound by place or even success in hearts and minds (and dreams) worldwide and through history, and even before it existed. It is mankind's democracy of value; mankind's diversity unlocked and perfected by liberty. America belongs to everyone but belongs to no one. It is "open source." e pluribus unum

March 16, 2016

If the “Senators,” the “Liberators,” succeed in taking down The Leader through a political conspiracy, doing with political maneuvers hidden in togas as knives, it may likely be that as The Leader lay dying, that he, and us, would reflect in question form as the force of life ebbs out…

But in justice, and for the good of the Republic, should we think it now?

Some contemplations this political Ides of March:

What if there was a political candidate who did not need Washington? Would Washington have need of him?

What if the candidate did not need a political career? …was not invested in “the process,” the party, the pay, the perqs, the pension? …did not play “the games”? …did not respect its “protocols”?

What if there was a political candidate who was someone who had already proven himself a success far outside of the political realm; provided for himself and his children and grandchildren, and built a business to last that continued to grow and could continue to keep him busy for the rest of his days? What if that person’s success in business already required over time and honed qualities of sacrifice, leadership, integrity, prudence, strength and forbearance – necessary to make it (and him) a success? What if politicians had come to see it as their primary job to “govern” such enterprises themselves, instead?

What if such a person voluntarily put aside his own business success to enter the political realm to help make things better in America?

What if there was a candidate who was openly proud of his real achievements? …did not apologize for them but flaunted them? …even as many others were still struggling? What if it made some people jealous? What if it made some people think (about what or who was holding back their own success)?

What if there was a candidate who did not depend on a political party? What if that candidate did not make way for a political party to involve itself in his successful campaign; by allowing co-fundraising opportunities, opportunities to involve party officials in events and messaging, opportunities to raise funds to retire debts from previous campaigns, or to raise funds for ancillary campaigns? What if the political party could not make money off the candidate (as it does with others)? What if it made some professional party officials mad?

And what if there were a candidate who did not speak falsely, but truly? …a candidate who observed and said what he observed? …a candidate which did not euphemize but who spoke really, declaratively; with force, of the opinions he owned and owned up to? What if, instead of sanitizing the many evils of today, the candidate called evil “evil” and disparaged it and made fun of it and belittled it? What if he did not play “race games” and instead spoke of universal values to everyone; “disrespecting” their race? …instead of just calling himself an “outsider” or a “reformer” (from inside the political machine) was truly an outsider; but who understood the “political machine” – having pulled its levers? What if he belittled his opponents rhetorically to win to achieve a greater good? What if “tough and ugly” talk was necessary against ugly realities? What if the “free speech” surprised some, and angered some, and scandalized some, and shocked some, and excited some?

Just maybe for the candidate who does not “need” Washington, Washington verily does not “need” them right back?

What if a person entering political life, with all its insults threats and daggers, when he did not need to, was a sacrifice?

What if, in an age of ‘measured speech,’ speaking truly got people in “trouble”? …especially politicians whose job it has been to measure speech?

What if we preferred in our human nature that people tell us what we want to hear, not what we needed to hear? What if political parties did not like candidates they could not control or raise money on? What if the likely opponents embodied all that the person’s candidacy opposed? What if the person knew more about likely opponent than the likely opponent desired? What if “talking heads” and “political pundits” were themselves invested in the current political configuration? What if former candidates had campaign debts to address?

What if we all get jealous sometimes? What if we all get mad sometimes? What if we all talk ‘out of turn’ sometimes? What if the person is not perfect, and nor are we? What if our imperfections are used against us, and him?

What if the people wanted to go in a different direction?

What if that person represented that new direction?

What if they could do nothing about it? …but to #stop him?

In the ensuing years a series of civil wars resulted with the end of the Republic and the rise of imperial Rome. These are times for “troubling dreams,” but also for very careful reflection, introspection, sacrifice and loyalty to country, and action.

July 10, 2014

A mass emigration of Latin Americans into the United States on the southern border...

The event was precipitated by a sharp downturn in their local economies which led to internal tensions.Their local governments subsequently announced that anyone who wanted to leave could do so, and an exodus started shortly afterward. The exodus was organized by Americans with the agreement of those outside of the US. The exodus started to have negative political implications for U.S. president when it was discovered that a number of the immigrants had been released from jails and mental health facilities.

Initially, the President had an open-arms policy in regard to immigrants. They were immediately granted refugee status and all the rights that went with it. Additionally, public opinion towards the refugees was initially favorable.

This situation changed when it was discovered that the refugees included criminals and people from mental hospitals. Central American officials arranged for the inclusion of criminals and people with mental illness among the refugees in order to rid their country of undesirables and to damage the image of the exiles.

This heightened tensions between the United States and Latin America.

As the crisis deepened and the scale of the migration grew, the US Military asked for help. The United States dispatched resources to support the refugees who were fleeing Central America. The mission of was to assist, but not directly transport, refugees on their way. During the mission, the military took aboard hundreds of refugees in need of humanitarian assistance. Needs included medical attention, food, fresh water and the like.

Some refugees were transported via commercial crafts. However, many refugees were poor and in rather dire straits. Essentially, these refugees had taken up less-than-desirable methods of transit.

Also, other elements of the national guard provided assistance to the Immigration Service; providing around the clock security, interpreters and assisted with the processing of refugees once they arrived. Dozens of watercraft arrived daily. 706 refugees were counted on the Red Diamond alone. Not all the intercepted were Central Americans.

Other sites were established at various churches throughout the area. Some sites were established to segregate the refugees until they could be provided with initial inprocessing. Once initially processed and documented, the refugees were quickly transferred to larger compounds in the metropolitan area so they could be reunited with relatives already living in the US as well as to allow interaction with various social action agencies like Catholic Charities, the American Red Cross, and others.

As the refugees started arriving, interpreters were found to be in short supply and interpreters were put under contract through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As the end of the initial crisis period wound down and after the vetting of those refugees who could be sponsored had run its course, the decision to transfer the 'hard to sponsor' refugees, which included those with criminal records, to longer-term processing sites as a joint operation with FEMA.

About fifty percent of the immigrants decided to reside in locally permanently and this resulted in a seven percent increase in workers in the local labor market and a twenty percent increase in the Central American working population.

Upon their arrival, many were placed in refugee camps. Crowded conditions in immigration processing centers forced U.S. federal agencies to move many to other centers. Federal civilian police agencies such as the General Services Administration's Federal Protective Service provided officers to maintain order inside the gates of the relocation centers. Riots occurred and some detainees escaped.

Many refugees were discovered to be undesirables; for example, criminals who had been released from prisons or other institutions (such as people with mental illness). The exact number of 'undesirables' that arrived in the boatlift is disputed.

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."

June 25, 2014

Far and away it is the leading place, unlike other places, where almost anything is possible. Time and history and demography and economics have proven this. It is that quality that we call: exceptionalism.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary has a listing for it: "the condition of being different from the norm."

And this would seem as a good, no?

Especially in such a diverse world...difference from the norm, especially when it means something really special, is this not something we would "trumpet?" And many rightly

Which is why I was really surprised to see this:

This is Microsoft Word, and the spell-check therein, where apparrently "exceptionalism" is "Not in Dictionary." And I wonder why. Especially with the exceptional success of Microsoft Corporation...

Have you ever asked yourself, "Who is afraid of exceptionalism, and why?"

And now - dang-it! Just as I was saving this post -- you too Typepad!

So then I checked Google...apparently their definition from Wikipedia adds the qualifier linking exceptionalism to something "a country" has...

Could this be part of why some people are afraid of the term "exceptionalism?" But then again Google is exceptional itself and must have been founded in some country...

But wait a minute! I looked at Yahoo and they actually put "American Exceptionalism" firstin the search results...even though I did not search for that but rather just "exceptionalism."

It would seem as though some editorializing is going on on the matter of the term exceptionalism. More later...

Matthew Thornton is a model for the polymathisticnature of the American Founders.

He died today 211 years ago in Newburyport, Massachusetts at the old age of 89.

His life displays well the value of eschewing gross particularism in favor open source thinking and working -- the mode of America.

One of three signers of the Declaration of Independence born in Ireland, Matthew Thornton was also:

A medical doctor,

A business owner,

A military support officer and colonel of a militia,

A Justice of the Peace,

First President of the New Hampshire House of Representatives,

A political essayist,

A judge (though never having attended law school),

Ferry operator,

Father of five children.

Today such a resume would represent several lifetimes. And yet, even with the advance of technology which should heighten our productivity, such diversity of work has become more and more rare. Maybe there is a good argument to be made for this open source work life. Maybe it can serve as a new (old) mode for greater productivity and the continued advancement of a free mankind.

Another factoid: So highly regarded was he personally, Thornton was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to be given express permission to sign the Declaration late -- on November 4, 1776 instead of with the other signers on July 4, 1776.

And despite all of this, at his request Matthew Thornton's grave reads simply, "Matthew Thornton, An Honest Man" indicating perhaps his greatest achievement of all; knowing what he was and what he was to be.

Said he of America, during his life:

"You must all be sensible that the affairs of America have at length come to a very affecting and alarming crisis. The Horrors and Distresses of a civil war, which, till of late, we only had in contemplation, we now find ourselves obliged to realize."

"Such a day as this was never before known, either to us or to our fathers."

"We would therefore recommend to the Colony at large to cultivate that Christian Union, Harmony and tender affection which is the only foundation upon which our invaluable privileges can rest with any security, or our public measures be pursued with the least prospect of success."

"We further recommend that the most industrious attention be paid to the cultivation of Lands and American Manufacture, in their various branches, especially the Linen and Woolen ; and that the husbandry might be particularly managed with a view thereto — accordingly that the Farmer raise Flax and increase his flock of sheep to the extent of his ability."

"We further recommend a serious and steady regard to the rules of temperance, sobriety and righteousness, and that those Laws which have heretofore been our security and defense from the hand of violence may still answer all their former valuable purposes, though persons of vicious and corrupt minds would willingly take advantage from our present situation."

June 18, 2014

Many have heard of the "watershed" book getting lots of attention (and lots of PR work), called 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century' by the Parisian economist Thomas Piketty.

There has been much "buzz." But what is it all about?

Not knowing much about it, before investing in the 600+ page book, but wanting to contend with the ideas therein, I invested in some research about the thinking here. Eureka!

If you want to know the thinking of Piketty ["What's all the buzz about?"] invest 10 of your minutes here in this summary and video.

Why this matters: It is important as it flies in the face of what history has taught about innovation, wealth creation, capital, and free markets....i.e. the fundament of America and mankind's prospering. This thinking is a novelty of second-hand economics as it considers not even the creation of wealth and capital but only 'divying it up.' (!)

A sauce-sopped supper guest telling the chef how to 'cut the meatball.'

Anyone wishing success for mankind should apprehend and contend with the thoughts being mass-marketed here.

Piketty & Meek Bawls in 10 MinutesA Critique

There is "too much global inequality" that "hurts democracy" and we must "spread the wealth" globally.

“’Inequality’ is bad because it does not serve ‘democracy.’”“The automobile was less important invention than Facebook.”“’True equality’ would mean that the ‘bottom 50 percent’ would ‘own closer to 50 percent.’”“Spreading wealth is important for our economy…and our democracy.”“’The bottom people’ would like to ‘'access' wealth.’”“I think we can ‘spread the wealth' more.”“It is possible to move toward a global registry of financial assets.”

PS - As a further window into this thinking, Monseiur Piketty was awarded his PHD in Economics for his paper on "wealth distribution," has served as an economic advisor to Socialist political candidates for office, and is a regular columnist for the French paper 'Liberation' founded by Jean-Paul Sartre.

PPS - For further context, here is another review of the book, glowing, and from the Socialist Appeal -- "the British section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT)."

June 17, 2014

"All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us.... Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed, we live, and what they lived, we dream." - Thomas King Whipple

Is he, Franklin, America's founder of venture capital -- embodied -- but as well inventor some hundreds of years ago in what some today call "social entrepreneurship" -- start-ups for the public good instead of the private profit? And moreover, avoiding patent lock-ups of IP, he was and is the model of Open Source Venture Capital, clearly the most effective form of enterprise and concept development – to inject developed ideas back into commercial ecosystems giving rise to new and greater ventures leveraged on this developed intellectual capital.

According to Wikipedia, a favorite source of sometime reliable information:

"The typical venture capital investment occurs after the seed funding round as the first round of institutional capital to fund growth (also referred to as Series A round) in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event, such as an IPO or trade sale of the company."

"In exchange for the high risk that venture capitalists assume by investing in smaller and less mature companies, venture capitalists usually get significant control over company decisions, in addition to a significant portion of the company's ownership (and consequently value)."

Now think of it.

Was not the life of Ben Franklin, in his inventions and developments, the first VC operation in America?

Back to Wikipedia:

"Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the lightning rod, glass armonica (a glass instrument, not to be confused with the metal harmonica), Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and the flexible urinary catheter. Franklin never patented his inventions; in his autobiography he wrote, "... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."

"His inventions also included social innovations, such as paying forward. Franklin's fascination with innovation could be viewed as altruistic; he wrote that his scientific works were to be used for increasing efficiency and human improvement. One such improvement was his effort to expedite news services through his printing presses."

He invented these products himself, making him a Founder no less than Mark Zuckerberg.

He funded them himself in their variety as needed in tranches, sometimes drawing in additional Co-investment [LPs, FOF] rendering him the VC Firm, not less than XYZ Ventures.

He was R&D. He was the CCO. He was Investor Relations.

He himself held a portfolio of more or less risky and unproven technologies, products and services [Energy, MediTech, early Information Technology] - many of which he "wrote off" or "paid forward" and some of which he made big through various "exits."

And consider all the things he developed through his open source venture development methodology:

He suggested: Colonies join together in a confederation, The Albany Plan of 1734, but it was not adopted The concept of Daylight Savings Time

He improved: Street lamps so they gave more light and would not be easily vandalized

He observed: That storms can move in an opposite direction from the direction of the wind and proposed one of the first correct explanations for storm movement in the northern hemisphere That prolonged exposure to lead would cause sickness

He surmised: That the common cold was passed from person to person through indoor air That making a list of “Pros” and “Cons” was the most effective decision strategy [better and earlier than the more legubrious SWOT]

He was first to: Use the words "positive" and "negative" to describe electricity [Energy, Education] Create a political cartoon in America [Media] Chart the Gulf Stream's temperatures and currents on transatlantic trips, to and from London Serve as Ambassador of the United States [Climate-tech] Introduce colonists to Scotch kale, Swiss barley, Chinese rhubarb and kohlrabi [Consumer, Imports, trendy “green foods”]

And he did this all more or less himself. So popular was he that colleagues, friends, and strangers begged to get into his blind pool. He was the deal flow. His mind the due diligence operations. He the first round and follow on. His involvement in an undertaking a one-man personal benchmark of the deal. The opposite of a ‘vulture capitalist’ – and entredoneur (!) -- inexclusive; standing pari passu with his fellow man.

Using VC principles, theories, and practices generations before today.

Rightly, we have not seen it yet, but Ben Franklin needs to also have credit as the founder of Venture Capital in America, and open source at that!

But, today's and tomorrow's economy will be based upon it. It will direct, finance, undertake then market, consider, purchase and consume -- that which is. It will drive governments, and politicians; bank policy and funding priorities, stock markets, commodities; ventures and capital.

It has been around for a long time. But never like today.

It has been a force for growth, and destruction, but never as it is today.

It is something which cannot be controlled, but controls never like today.

But what is the Growd - the "Global-Crowd?"

It is multicultural, multilingual, multi-religious, multi-faceted, multiplying. It speaks every language cadence and diction and none. It lives in all places and also nowhere. It does all thing needed to be done, and those that are not, and it also does nothing.

Technology, government-adjoinments, "super cultures," the ease and speed of travel and instantaneous communications have constructed a first in a world phenomenon: the Super Society, the Growd.

Manifestly, the "world is (not) shirking" and it "does (not) take a village." These are politcal marketing theories.

This is bigger than the village and bigger than the world, even if it shrinks.

Convergence, not of technology as so many trendy say. Instead convergence of mankind. How? Why?

An America, smashed and scattered, does not go away. Newton knew this in thermodynamics. It seems like those who want Her to go away do not cognize this fact: America (free vessel of mankind) cannot go away.

If you smash America you do not get no America. Instead you get a thousand little Americas. But they are not distinct. They remain connected just as DNA is connected even if severed.

Pollination, not pulverization.

The Growd -- the - Global Crowd -- the global convergence of mankind yesterday was a geography and a destiny called America. Today the Growd - made in America - remains a destiny if only in 1,000s of connected geographies, connected if they are not by wires and wifi but by mankind and the bonds that connects him to himself, to what is, and to each other. Mankind's DNA. free, is America.

The Growd does not signal that America's days are behind her. Instead just the opposite: America has gone open source -- outside of geography, government.

Do not worry. You who think you may lose Her. You never had her in the first place - She has you! And you can and should still be the Patriot you ever were, even more so!

January 27, 2014

The American Attitude is a real thing. It is that human compulsion propelling mankind forward found in a place called America. It says, no matter the barrier, that I can find a way to be, to believe, to achieve. I can build that. The original, the authentic, 'Yes We Can.'

It is the engine, the trimtab, on the ship of mankind's destiny. But on real ships too. It is what caused so many millions to depart home and hearth, their cuccoon of customs, family and friends, and yes jobs and careers for a free, if uncertain, future. Not just in a place, but in a place of being. American's first arrive first when they decide to go. These Americans migrate first in their minds before they ever move. When they decide that no stream is too big to ford, nor mountain too high to traverse or circumnavigate, or tunnel through, nor any burden too heavy to carry if the cause is right. Make a wheel!

The American Attitude is what hurtled history's Franklin, and Edison, and Ford; its Morgan and Getty, and Stanford; its Gates, its Jobs, its Zuckerberg...but also its Robinson, and Jordan, and Grier...and its Lincoln, its Roosevelt, its Reagan...its Donners...but also its Tubman, its King, its Parks...and also its DeMille, its Chaplin, its Spielberg...but also its Armstrong, its Beatles (yes them), its Jackson...and down to all the innovators, the inventors, the ingenuitators, to creators, to anyone who pushed the mop in a better or more vigorous way...

America is more a place of being even than it is a place. That place of being we call attitude - the well-founded durable belief that if one can conceive and try -- one can do; unbounded by strictures or limitations, regulations, critics, thieves of credit, nor any obstacle at all...The American Attitude is a reality of doing.

Recently the leader of the British health service (NHI) said that patients should adopt an "American attitude" to advocate for more medicine and better care. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2545737/NHS-patients-adopt-American-attitude-pushy-drugs-theyre-entitled-to.html

This was said, as often it is today, in a pejorative manner - 'ugly and pushy.'

But one man's pejorition can conceal his envy. One man's pejoritive comment can be the form of an ad hominen against the merits or success of another man. Maybe what to a man is a virtue can be to his opponent a vice. Does anybody remember Aesop's oenopoetic fox?

Many today would prefer, and actively seek through popular culture mechanics to transform, and do, that American Pride would become an American Prejudice.

Don't let them. I ain't so. The American Attitude is a virtue, not a vice. It is a gift to the world -- transmitted a million ways a second across a digital phenomenon we call the Internet. You are doing just fine America. Keep The American Attitude. Don't ever seek to be less American but always ever more so. To secure for us and for our posterity...

There are millions of millions standing monuments the world over in every single field: in art, commerce, technology, law, finance, human rights, engineering, medicine, the family -- to America...and a scant few if remain for her critics.

Day of FAIL."Hysterical" imagery from assorted hysterical "anti-capitalism" "occupy" "activists" putting forward a "Day of Rage." Brought to you by the genius proprietor of zombietime.com.
[Warning: some obscene language on "articulate protest" posters.]

Facebook jokes."Facebook now has 500 million users. The previous record holder was heroin."